Due to the desire to further increase the performance of piston internal combustion engines, whether operating on the Otto cycle or the diesel cycle, there is a desire to save weight, which leads to the use of materials such as aluminum, as well as a desire to improve performance, which leads to an increase in pressures within the cylinder. However, the increase in pressures within the cylinder causes considerable mechanical stress for the cylinder head. In particular, there is an alternating bending load on the cylinder head, which results in the risk of cracks developing in the cylinder head.
German patent document DE-C-42 22 801 discloses a cylinder head for a piston internal combustion engine, where the cooling-water carrying regions of the cylinder head, enclosed by a lower wall and an upper wall, are divided continuously by an intermediate wall into a lower cooling-water carrying region delimited by the lower wall, and an upper cooling-water carrying region delimited by the upper wall. The lower and the upper cooling-water carrying regions in this case do not contain any transverse connections for a cooling-water exchange between the lower and the upper regions, such that completely separate cooling-water flows are guided across the cylinder head. The continuous intermediate wall of this design reinforces the cylinder head with respect to the aforementioned bending loads caused by the increased pressures inside the cylinder. However, producing a cylinder head of this type can pose problems with respect to casting technology. In addition, the completely separate guidance of cooling-water inside the cylinder head can result in disadvantageous heat stresses within the cylinder head, because of the temperature differences that can result from a lack of transverse cooling-water exchange between the hotter lower cooling-water carrying region and the relatively cooler upper cooling-water carrying region.